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Harris County was under an 'enhanced' threat for severe weather Friday. Here's how often that happens.
It’s only the second time this year and it happened fewer than a dozen times last year.
HOUSTON — Harris County and surrounding areas were under a Level 3 threat out of 5 for severe weather Friday. And that level of threat doesn’t happen often here. The levels are from the Storm Prediction Center, and a Level 3 means there’s an enhanced risk. The higher the number, the higher the risk of severe weather.
Here’s a breakdown of exactly what the different levels mean.
- Marginal (Dark green): This initial level means isolated severe thunderstorms are possible. Storms would likely be limited in how long they last, how much area they cover and how intense they become.
- Slight (Yellow): A slight risk means scattered severe storms are possible, though they’d likely be short-lived and not have widespread coverage over an area. While they might not be as persistent, these storms could still produce isolated intense conditions.
- Enhanced (Orange): Under enhanced conditions, numerous severe storms are possible. This level is marked by more persistent and widespread storms, a few of which could be intense.
- Moderate (Red): Jumping to a moderate risk level means more widespread severe storms are likely, and they could be long-lived and intense.
- High (Magenta): An area where a severe weather outbreak is expected from either numerous intense and long-tracked tornadoes or a long-lived derecho-producing thunderstorm complex that produces hurricane-force wind gusts and widespread damage. This risk is reserved for when high confidence exists in widespread coverage of severe weather with embedded instances of extreme severe (i.e., violent tornadoes or very damaging convective wind events).
So how often are we under a Level 3 enhanced threat? Friday was the second day this year that inland Harris County has seen that level of risk. The other time in 2025 that we saw a Level 3 was on April 5.
Here’s a graphic showing the Level 3 threat level that was in effect for Harris County on Friday
Looking back at last year, there were nine days that Harris County saw a Level 3. The month of May had the most with four days, including May 16 — the day of the Derecho.
Below is a breakdown of Level 3 days by month last year.
- Jan 2024 – 1 Level 3 Enhanced Day
- Feb 2024 – 1 Level 3 Enhanced Day
- March 2024 – 0
- April 2024 – 2 Level 3 Enhanced Day
- May 2024 – 4 Level 3 Enhanced Day
- June 2024 – 0
- July 2024 – 0
- August 2024 – 0
- September 2024 – 0
- October 2024 – 0
- November 2024 – 0
- December 2024 – 1 Level 3 Enhanced Day.
You may notice that July didn’t have any days at Level 3. And July is when Hurricane Beryl hit Houston. The reason there were no Level 3s is because tropical weather is handled by the National Hurricane Center, not the Storm Prediction Center.